


sweet amazake

by katsukifatale (TrumpetGeek)



Category: Initial D
Genre: Festivals, Fluff, M/M, New Year's Eve, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21790096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrumpetGeek/pseuds/katsukifatale
Summary: “I haven’t gone to the shrine on New Year’s Day since I was a kid. I was thinking, might be nice to do that. With you. If you want.”---A first date.
Relationships: Fujiwara Takumi/Takahashi Keisuke
Kudos: 53





	sweet amazake

**Author's Note:**

> howdy! this fic was written for shlongfongler during the initialdexchange winter 2019 secret santa event! hope you enjoy it!

In the winter, the mountains are laden with crystalline snow. 

It makes for some beautiful scenery, but miserable touge driving. Takumi props his elbow up in the closed window of the FD and sighs. His breath fogs up the glass, and he grins at the annoyed look Keisuke shoots him from the driver’s seat as he draws his finger through it. 

The night is clear in the way that the coldest nights always are. The exhaust of the FD streams out like fog as the car idles at the edge of Lake Akina.

“Got any plans for New Year’s?” Keisuke asks. His voice is a quiet rumble. Takumi can see his hand gripping the gear shift, loosening, gripping. He’s nervous — something Takumi has learned from being his teammate and his friend. Keisuke always fiddles with something when he’s nervous, but not in an obvious way. Sticks his hand in his pocket to rub a go-en coin, or scratches a fingernail along the outside seam of his jeans. Little things that wouldn’t be noticed unless someone has spent a lot of time around him.

Takumi’s noticed.

(Takumi’s noticed a _lot_ of things about Keisuke lately. 

Like the slope of his nose and the slenderness of his fingers, the strength of his hands. The glint of mischief that sometimes appears in his eyes when he’s teasing. The way his smiles turn soft and fond when he thinks no one is looking at him.)

He grins to himself, catches it in the side mirror and turns away to look at the swan boats gently bumping into each other as the wind pushes the water across the lake’s surface. He shivers just looking at it, feeling the cold radiate from the window. Keisuke turns up the heat without a word, and something warm and sweet settles softly in behind Takumi’s ribcage.

He thinks for a moment, about his old man sitting in front of the television watching variety shows and drinking beer, and counting down to the new year alone in his car at the top of Mount Akina. The decision is easy.

“No plans,” he says. “Unless you’ve got any ideas?”

“I haven’t gone to the shrine on New Year’s Day since I was a kid. I was thinking, might be nice to do that. With you. If you want.”

“Yeah,” Takumi says, turning his upper body to face Keisuke. “I think I’d like to do that.”

Keisuke smiles at him and Takumi’s heart thuds thuds thuds.

They hash out their plans to meet at the foot of the Ikaho Stone Steps in the evening on the last day of the year, and then Keisuke is pulling away from the lake. They leave behind the lonely swan boats and make their way down the mountain. He tightens his grip on the seatbelt where it sits over his chest and catches Keisuke’s eyes in the side mirror.

* * *

Ikaho Stone Steps is a three hundred meter long staircase that leads up to the area’s main shrine, Ikaho Shrine. On New Year’s Eve a crowd gathers to enjoy the food stalls at the foot of the stairs, and many brave souls make the long trek up the 365 steps to greet the New Year at the shrine — a tradition in Japan called Hatsumode. 

It’s not an event that Takumi has ever experienced. It’s just him and his old man at home, and holidays usually consisted of sitting cross-legged on the tatami watching variety shows and eating aburaage while his old man drinks.

He doesn’t really know what to expect when he pulls up to the Ikaho Stone Steps parking lot, but it’s not the crush of people or the party-like atmosphere. It’s just after nine o’clock at night but it looks like the entirety of Shibukawa is here, and everyone is laughing and smiling, clutching at steaming cups with gloved hands. 

He spots Keisuke’s blond hair in the crowd and grins. He cuts the engine and ducks out of the car, laughing at the relieved look on his uphill partner’s face. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he says, laughing harder at the look Keisuke gives him. “What, did you think I’d stand you up on our first date?”

“Whatever,” Keisuke replies. There’s an adorable blush staining his cheeks. “Want to get some food?”

They peruse the food stalls at the foot of the Steps for a while, collecting skewers of karaage and little sausage octopuses and different flavors of taiyaki to share between them. There’s amazake too. Keisuke hands Takumi a cup after they’ve finished all of their food, and Takumi sighs at the feeling of warmth between his hands. 

“It’s my favorite,” Keisuke tells him. He takes a sip and sighs in pleasure; Takumi watches the steam furl out from his mouth like smoke. “You can only find the good stuff around New Year’s.”

The amazake is thick and creamy and smells a bit like fermented rice, but the taste is rich and sweet on his tongue. It’s delicious. The way Keisuke’s face lights up when he tells him so makes Takumi’s breath hitch.

“You like it?”

“Mm, I love it.”

They start the long journey up the steps with full stomachs and light hearts. They’re flanked by ryokan, onsen, footbaths, souvenir shops, and more food stalls that sell food like mochi and roasted chestnuts. Nestled in between the businesses are stands that house carnival-like games, like shateki and senbonhiki and wooden pinball. About halfway up, Keisuke convinces him to try out one of the pinball games and whines when Takumi ends up beating him — not once, not twice, but four times.

Takumi’s prizes are little yellow rubber ducks that he names after everyone in Project D except Keisuke.

“Since I’m unbeatable on the touge, I guess people need to resort to pinball in order to win,” Keisuke says haughtily, startling Takumi into laughing and dropping all of his ducks. Keisuke smirks at him as he bends down to help pick them back up.

“I seem to recall beating you when I didn’t even know we were racing…” Takumi bites his lip to keep from laughing at the incredulous look on Keisuke’s face.

“ _Oh_ , okay. Fuck you,” he says casually. 

Takumi wheezes. “I think we should finish the steps first.”

The old lady running the pinball game laughs and startles Takumi into dropping his ducks again.

They keep wandering, meandering slowly up the flights of stairs, stopping to buy a roasted chestnut and some ramune to wash it down. It’s fun — it’s really, really fun, and nothing like what Takumi expected. The crowd thins the further up they go, and soon it feels like they’re alone in the world, no one around to censure them if Takumi steals a bite directly from Keisuke’s mochi or if Keisuke’s hand lingers a little too long on Takumi’s back.

It’s just after midnight when they finally reach the top of the steps. This area of the steps is obviously older — where the steps below are in pristine condition, these are cracked and the edges of them are worn smooth. They’re framed by an equally old stone torii, signifying the transition from the earthly realm to the sacred space of the shrine grounds. The top, leveled out beyond the final step, is lit up with red and white paper lanterns, casting a warm glow over the wooden body of the shrine.

The shrine itself is beautiful and old. There are a few people praying, and where they walk is a path of footprints in the dusting of snow that covers the whole top part of the steps. Keisuke takes his hand and they follow the path together, stepping up behind a mother and small child waiting to pray at the shrine. 

Takumi shivers and yawns, unused to staying up this late when he usually makes 4am tofu delivery runs. Keisuke lets go of his hand and instead wraps his arm around Takumi’s shoulders, encouraging him to lean his head against Keisuke’s shoulder. It’s warm like this, and comfortable in a way that makes Takumi’s stomach flip. He glances up through his fringe and smiles at Keisuke’s perpetually red cheeks.

When it’s their turn to pray, Takumi rings the bell, claps and bows and prays for good fortune in the new year and for the safety of his Project D family in their future endeavors as they continue to race through the Kanto region. He prays, too, for the continual presence of Keisuke in his life. Keisuke — the man who bullheadedly forced him to recognize his own potential by yelling at him until it stuck; the man he maybe might love. 

It’s a revelation that he’s had before, but it still blows him away whenever it crops up on him again. Takumi doesn’t really know what love is, but the way he feels about Keisuke is what he imagines it would feel like.

He breathes out hard through his mouth and bows and claps and steps away from the shrine. Keisuke is waiting for him on the other side, so he makes his way around the crowd and when Keisuke offers his gloved hand he takes it. 

“What did you pray about for so long?” he asks as they make their way to the outbuildings.

“Something special,” he replies, bumping their hips together as they walk. Keisuke huffs but doesn’t push, and Takumi brushes his thumb across his knuckles in thanks.

There’s no one standing near the omikuji shakers, so they go there first, picking up the big wooden box and shaking it back and forth until a little rolled up piece of paper falls out. They unroll them together and are quiet while they read their own oracle for the new year.

After a few moments, Keisuke sighs and begins to fold it up in order to tie it. 

“Bad luck?” Takumi asks sympathetically.

“Worst luck. You?”

Takumi grins and stuff his omikuji into his pocket. “Best luck.”

“Of course,” Keisuke says, rolling his eyes with a little smile. They wander around to find an appropriate tree and Takumi makes fun of Keisuke’s attempts to tie the small omikuji to a branch that’s too big. 

“Maybe my luck will rub off on you.”

“Guess I’ll have to stick close then.”

“Please do.”

Takumi catches Keisuke’s eyes and smiles softly at him, and Keisuke smiles back. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> this fic is based on real life sort of...more like a mashing of different real-life experiences haha. january 2019 i did the whole joya no kane/hatsumode thing in kyoto which was really fun. the description of the food stalls and atmosphere comes from that experience. in august 2019 i visited shibukawa, which is takumi's real-life hometown. i was able to climb the ikaho stone steps and visit the ikaho shrine! the pinball game is a game that i actually played, and i did actually get a couple of rubber ducks as prizes lol.
> 
> some further notes:  
> hatsumode - the japanese tradition of visiting a shrine for new years to pray for good fortune  
> aburaage - what the fujiwara tofuten produces  
> karaage - fried chicken  
> taiyaki - cake-like pastry in the shape of a fish (tai) filled with different ingredients like custard or chocolate or azuki bean  
> amazake - alcoholic or non-alcoholic sweet fermented rice drink  
> ryokan - japanese tradition hotel  
> onsen - hotspring bath  
> shateki & senbonhiki - games that are typically played at festivals or in onsen towns; shateki is a shooting game and senbonhiki is a type of fishing game  
> omikuji - its like a piece of paper that tells you what your luck will be like in different areas of your life; if it's bad, you tie it to a tree on shrine property


End file.
